16-year-old Newlywed Dies in Lagos Mudslide

A teenager named Faisa, has been reported dead in a collapsed shanty in the Agidingbi area of Ikeja, Lagos State.

She was said to have been caught by the mudslide while she was asleep in her makeshift wooden structure built on a canal.

PUNCH reports that the 16-year-old got married 10 days ago to one Muhammed, in their village in Goza, Borno State, before relocating to Lagos.

The body of the woman has since been deposited at a mortuary by officials of the State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit, who responded to a distress call.

According to the report, about 100 people lived in the slum located on Dosumu Street, off Amara Olu Road, Agidingbi. Most of the inhabitants were former Borno residents who fled their state as a result of Boko Haram attacks.

One resident, Ibrahim Aliu, said they paid N24,000 per year as rent to some men who claimed to be working for the Lagos State Government.

Another resident, Umaru Mate, narrating what happened said:

I went out very early this morning and returned around 10AM. I was about going into my house when I heard a loud noise.

About 20 of us rushed there and saw that three houses had been destroyed by the mudslide. We were able to rescue a man, Umar, his wife and their five children.

The woman that died just got married to her husband in the village. They have not stayed up to 10 days in this place.

Hassan Aji, another resident, appealed to the government to help them get shelter. “We are all from Borno State. We left our villages because of Boko Haram. We relocated here about two years ago. Our villages are deserted. As I speak with you, I don’t know where my mother is. I have two wives and seven children and if the government sends us away from here, I don’t know where to go,” he said.

The spokesperson for National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), South-West Zone, Ibrahim Farinloye, confirmed the report, saying: “It was a mudslide which collapsed on shanties in the slum. A woman, 16-year-old Faisa, who got wedded about 10 days ago, was killed.”

The General Manager of Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Michael Akindele, said:

Three persons were discovered trapped in the mud. The agency’s emergency response team was able to rescue two of them, while the third victim was recovered dead.

The area is a buffer zone which is not good for human settlement. The Lagos State Government has been sensitising people staying in flood-prone areas and wetland to vacate such areas to avert loss of lives especially, during this rainy season.

God have mercy, some people are suffering o and i am here complaining about my own rented house and all that.(Lord Jesus please forgive me 🙁 ) this is so sad, expecially in a country where are there so many people living very comfortably. Go to places like Lekki,Oniru and all,you find so many big and very very empty houses that you sometimes as your self,the owners of these houses will they be buried with it? And some persons just need just an apartment to feel better. Government dont build low cost houses no more,even if they did,the rich only the rich will still buy it and sell at the highest bidder. I hate this country i swear down. Now to poverty,lives are been lost. May their souls find rest.

the truth is the technology to map the land and see which areas are flood prone is out there, very easy, and even the people to do it are right there, but for some reason the knowledge is not something that the government concerns itself with. check even the roads / highways, some of them are on rivers and so they keep wearing out and keep flooding. why does that happen in Nigeria and doesn’t happen in Europe at least not in major cities. After you repair ten times shebi you’ll consult the map and try building a new expressway.

from the Lagos events it seems mudslides are even worse killers than floods and it’s not enough to say we’ve tried to sensitize, please, try harder. if you live in a mudslide zone and rains start what should you do? give me a protocol to follow. for example: at the start/middle/end of the rains is the most dangerous, abandon your home and sleep in this church or that shelter. you will be notified when it’s safe to return. that’s the level of try that we deserve.

“The area is a buffer zone which is not good for human settlement. The Lagos State Government has been sensitising people staying in flood-prone areas and wetland to vacate such areas to avert loss of lives especially, during this rainy season.”

Before we go all govt govt, they are doing their part. But what options are there when they vacate?

Seriously? So many people live under bridges. Look at these pictures; they literally built wooden structures in the middle of trees and the likes. Does the government need to say this place isn’t livable? Do we need technology to map this one out?
Bottomline, loads of poor people move to Lagos in search of a better life. Whether they were displaced by Boko Haram or somebody told them they can sell something to a larger amount of people. When Fashola had some people relocated to their home states, there was uproar.
Lagos’ population grows everyday. Every single year, our number grows by the hundreds of thousands.
We need to have tough discussions about citizenship in Nigeria and what it means to live in a city…and a megacity at that. Not everybody can live in New York or Paris or whatever else. It’s expensive, it’s stressful, that’s just city life. So yes, there may be un-lived in apartments in Lekki…that’s city life in a capitalist economy.
Is it the Lagos state government’s job to cater to a married 16 year old who would likely have kids in that same residence, and would not pay taxes because she would be employed in the informal sector?
Think about the implications of internal migration and the stress on states that are actually investing in growth. Then let’s have a balanced discussion. Not everytime government, biko. No, I’m not elitist, and I’m not “wicked” either. I’m just one of the not-enough Nigerians who think about governance from a holistic view.